How to Achieve Geographic Server Failover

An automatic geographic sever failover is utilized by companies to ensure they remain online in the event of a natural disaster. If it detects an error on the primary server, it will direct the incoming traffic to another server. The automatic geographic server failover will allow the company to increase productivity even if the error was manmade.

By achieving geographic server failover, all your critical data from applications will be saved, as the recovery time will be quick and network downtime will occur less frequently. You can achieve geographic server failover by doing taking the following steps:

1.     Establish a Secondary Failover Server

The first thing on the agenda should be getting a secondary failover server. Select a server that does not look anything like your primary server. This means using a different host for the second server, and make sure the location of your second server is also different. Conduct some detailed research on the second failover servers you narrow down to use, as using the wrong one can put your company in jeopardy.

2.     Synchronize the Geographic Server with Your Primary Server

Remember your geographic server is your secondary server. You need to ask someone who is an expert at synchronizing the two servers together, preferably a network administrator. You want the same information to be on the second server as it is on the first sever. In order to make the happen, you need to synchronize the two server together. The two things that you need to synchronize are website files and databases.

3.     Tool to Switch Your Servers

If one server is not working properly, you need a tool to switch it to the next server. The tool will check the status of the server every few minutes to attain a certain response. If it fails to get the response it is looking for, it will switch to the geographic server.

4.     Establish DNS Failover

The function of the DNS Failover is to check the status script of the server, which it will do every few minutes. If you or others cannot reach your website for instance through your primary server, the DNS Failover will get to work. It will switch the entries to look like the primary server, and no one will notice a difference. When your primary server is back up, it will direct traffic back to it.

5.     Test the Geographic Server

Wait two days before you test your newly created geographic server, as it might take approximately 24 to 28 hours for the DN transfer to occur through the internet. You can test it by renaming the server status script. You will receive an alert telling you that your site appears to be down and it will be directing the traffic to the backup server.

A more viable solution will be to get hybrid-MultiWAN and session-bonding technology that provides you with an automatic geographic server failover system. Give us a call if you want to equip your company with a geographic server failover system.